Commune Book Two Progress #apocalypse #amwriting

Well, I crossed the 110K word mark today. Judging how much there is left in the story to cover for this entry, I’m guessing the final count will be somewhere around 130 to 140K, which is alright with me. The good news is that I think I can still have it finished by August, but that’s probably only the first draft. It’ll need to go through a few edits and such.

I didn’t have much of a target length for this book so much as I knew what the plot needed to be and what I wanted to cover. I’m not sure if I’m surprised or not at the scope of this story. I knew there were going to be several more people in it, that I’d have to deal a bit more with group dynamics, and that there would need to be some world building due to the fact that we’re now over a half-year into the post apocalypse and the world needs to be getting harder to live in as resources get consumed.

The biggest challenge by far has been keeping myself limited to telling the story in first person from POV characters. It’s hard because as the writer, I’m aware of everything that’s going on in this world that I’d like to be sharing with you, the reader, and yet I can’t because the perspectives of my characters can’t see much further than the little valley they’ve carved out for themselves. It’s important that I keep it up at least until the end of this book, though. The idea that perspective of the narrator shades the story is a big part of what I’m trying to convey in these stories; giving up 1st person would obliterate that intent.